Donald is an Associate Professor of Immunology in Comparative Biomedical Sciences. His main research interests are immunosenesence, particularly with regards to age-associated thymic involution. He is also interested in the use of antibody phage display technology to identify novel markers on stem cells and cancer cells.

Donald is an Associate Professor of Immunology. He did his undergraduate studies (Medical Sciences) at Bradford University, his postgraduate studies (MSc in Immunology) at King's College London and obtained his PhD which involved investigating the genetic regulation of Beta-2-microglobulin in the Division of Transplantation Biology, MRC Clinical Science Centre, Northwick Park Hospital.

This was followed by a post doctoral position at Cancer Research UK, looking at lymphocyte development in transgenic and mutant mice in the laboratory of Dr Mick Owen. Donald undertook another post doctoral position at Imperial College in the laboratory of Professor Mary Ritter, again working in the area of lymphocyte development, but in the context of the microenvironment. Donald successfully obtained an MRC Career Development Award and became a Research Lecturer at Imperial College London. During this award he used antibody phage display technology to study cellular interactions in the thymus and investigated intrathymic neuroendocrine communications. He joined the RVC in 2002.

Donald is currently a member of the British Society for Immunology (BSI), was Secretary of the London Immunology Group (a Regional Group of the BSI; 2002-2007) and previously a board member of the BSI council. He is currently on the Editorial Advisory Board for Immunology News. He is also a member of the British Society for Research on Ageing.

Donald is currently a Honorary Senior Lecturer at Imperial College, London

Donald’s main area of research is focused on investigating the cellular and molecular interactions involved in T cell development and in particularly understanding the processes that are involved in age-associated thymic involution and immunosenescence.

He has used antibody phage display technology to identify cell surface structures expressed on thymic epithelium that are involved in stromal cell-thymocyte interaction; which is still an ongoing project. Furthermore, in a collaborative project he has used this technology to identify cell surface structures on tumours. Cross-talk between the immune, endocrine and nervous systems involve common neuroendocrine circuits and Dr Palmer’s work has demonstrated the expression of several neuropeptides and their receptors in the thymus of different species and showed that these peptides can directly modulate thymocyte differentiation.

These studies led Dr Palmer to pursue an interest in understanding how ageing affected the immune system, in particular the mechanisms involved in age-related thymic atrophy. He’s group have been investigating the architectural changes in the ageing thymus, and made the novel finding of the presence of senescent cells in the thymus of older animals (in collaboration with Professor Thomas von Zglinicki, Institute of Ageing and Health, University of Newcastle). In addition to these observations, examination of thymocytes also revealed age-related alterations in phenotype and function. Dr Palmer has extended his interest on the affect of ageing on other components of the immune system and is examining Natural Killer cell function in the elderly (in collaboration with Prof Arne Akbar and Dr Sian Henson, UCL).

He also has an interest in comparative immunology and is currently examining the thymic architecture and function in different species.

Primarily, he teaches Immunology and Cellular Biology on these programmes.

Additionally, Donald teaches on the MSc in Immunology at Imperial College, BSc in Biological Sciences at UEL, Pathology Module in the Natural Science Tripos (Year 3) at University of Cambridge and the Infection & Immunity option in the third year undergraduate medical course at Oxford University.

He is a Registered Practitioner of The Higher Education Academy, having successfully completed a Postgraduate College Certificate in Academic Practice at King’s College London, and is currently the Higher Education Academy Biosciences Representative for the RVC.

Donald was previously External Examiner for BSc Biological Sciences at University of Bedfordshire (2012-2017) and currently an External Examiner for BSc Biomedical Science (Y1 and Y2) at St George's University of London (2016-2020) and Part IB Pathology course for Y2 undergraduate students at Cambridge University (2019-2021).

Donald is passionate about increasing scientific awareness amongst the general public and fellow scientist, and also to encourage young people to consider a career in science by regularly contributing to public engagement activities; speaking at schools, colleges, community events and scientific festivals. He has often provided comments in the area of immunology to various media outlets. Donald has developed and teaches on a Biology Masterclass for year 12/13 pupils which consist of ‘a day at university’ involving lectures, a practical together with guidance on university application; as part of the college’s widening participation activity. Donald is a mentor and role model for various organisations and Chair of Govenors of a school in North London .

Biology: Changing the World which celebrates the great biologists of the past. A Project developed by Royal Society of Biology, in partnership with BBSRC, and with funding from Heritage Lottery: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikERUEGqMPg